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The man police can’t stop carding

Dale James is regularly being stopped by Toronto police and is suing over it. The thing is, he has already reached a settlement with the cops after his 2013 suit.

Dale James of Toronto says he is constantly being stopped by Toronto police. James alleges he and his brother were racially profiled and accused of "loitering" at the rear door of the family's Wilson Ave. apartment. (Jim Rankin / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

Dale James talks “slow and low” and due to a childhood accident, he is partially blind in his left eye, which is milky white. On a hot day in June, he arrives late at his lawyer’s office and wears a Raptors cap and Tupac Shakur T-shirt, which hangs off his thin frame.

He’s lost weight, and has cut down on his trips to see a therapist for treatment of depression, even though it’s getting worse, he says.

It is a rare outing, he tells his lawyer, Osborne Barnwell.

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After 16 years of being regularly stopped by police, for the past two months, James, 33, started staying home most days in a cramped apartment he shares with his mother, on Wilson Ave., near Bathurst St.

“Either they’re going to get me in trouble,” he says of the police, “or they’re going to kill me … I’m just trying to avoid them. I can’t take it anymore.”

In his latest legal battle, James and his brother are suing Toronto police. In a statement of claim filed late last year, they seek $2.2 million in damages, alleging an assault on James, racial profiling, arbitrary detention and search of James outside their apartment. They further allege police are “terrorizing” the entire family and have caused mental distress.

In a statement of defence, the two named officers and the police service deny all allegations, including the allegation of racial profiling.

There has already been one “substantial” settlement by Toronto police with James, the details of which can’t be disclosed, says Barnwell. The settlement was the result of a 2013 lawsuit and a human rights complaint.

Despite the settlement, Barnwell says a message for police to leave his client alone doesn’t seem to be getting through.

Last year, he and James visited a high-ranking officer in 31 Division. It’s the division in northwest Toronto where many of the stops have happened. It was agreed, says Barnwell, that James’s name would be flagged so officers would know the history.

“But he’s still suffering the harassment,” says Barnwell.

Police spokesperson Meaghan Gray told the Star a “mediated compromise” that involved no admission of wrongdoing resulted in a confidential resolution. This included the meeting with police that was “intended to develop a more positive relationship” with officers at 31 Division and also provided James with resources to “seek vocational and counselling assistance, Gray said in an email.

“Unfortunately, given the latest statement of claim filed by Mr. James, our efforts seem to have been for naught,” said Gray.

James is indeed a police magnet.

He provided the Star with details of 43 encounters with Toronto police from April 2006 to November 2015. They were gleaned from multiple freedom-of-information requests he made. He believes there are many more and says he is appealing to Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner.

A Star analysis of contact card data from 2008 to 2012 shows James is correct, finding 32 encounters that appear to involve him — 15 more than what he obtained in his personal requests for that period. Of the 32 encounters, 16 were for vehicle stops or vehicle-related. Eleven were for “general investigation.”

Police say “all responsive records” would have been provided to Dale but the service was unable to confirm the exact number of encounters, since FOI requests and responses are purged after two years. However, the service does not dispute there may have been more contacts, Gray said.

Repeated Star analyses of Toronto police contact card data have shown black people are more likely than white people to be documented in each of the city’s 70-plus patrol zones.

Carding — the capturing of personal details from non-criminal stops in a massive police database — was suspended in January 2015 by then chief Bill Blair. Community groups say the stops have not stopped. In January, provincial regulations, aimed at doing away with arbitrary stops, fully kick in.

Although James lives in 32 Division, many of his stops were recorded in neighbouring 31 Division, where he would often go to visit a former girlfriend.

Police, says James, make fun of how he talks — and describe him as having a “stink eye,” “dead eye,” “one eye” and “glass eye,” though he does have some sight in his damaged left eye, left untreated.

James says he has been arrested several times and handcuffed, and had police guns pointed at him “10-plus” times. He says he was once charged with assault but says he was acquitted and has never been convicted of a crime.

He says he’s been accused of stealing scrap tires, when collecting them was part of his work. He says he’s had the licence plate on the family car run by police and been detained on false information, been followed, harassed and, in one encounter, was told by an officer that he must be a drug dealer because his hands “don’t look like you do any work.”

Most of the time, he says he is questioned, documented and let go — and, according to his rights complaint that got settled, left feeling bullied, profiled and humiliated.

Many of the encounters involved officers from the controversial Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) unit, which is to be mothballed.

In police notations on James’s contact card paperwork that he obtained, officers describe him as anti-police and confrontational. James told the Star he is not anti-police, but after all these years, does not trust them. He says he once aspired to become a police officer like his father, who served in St. Vincent, James’s birth country.

These types of cards were used in Toronto in recent years to document citizens, with the information fed into an internal database. (Jim Rankin/Toronto Star photo illustration)

The stops

The police paperwork shows Dale James has been stopped while walking and while driving in many parts of the city. Several contacts were for “loitering” in a vehicle — James says he was simply waiting on a friend.

For years, James documented encounters with a tape recorder. In one 2007 vehicle stop, police noted on a contact card that James was “hostile” and “used recording device on police.”

In another 2007 encounter, police noted in a traffic stop that it was a “routine check” and that James was “known to police.”

In a 2008 encounter, according to police contact card information, two TAVIS officers documented James for “interfering with police while trying to arrest other male.” James says he saw police roughing up a black man who was in handcuffs already and spoke up.

In a 2011 vehicle stop involving four TAVIS officers, police noted the reason was for not wearing a seatbelt, which James denies.

In another 2011 encounter, police paperwork shows they detained him for 13 minutes behind his apartment building after two officers “observed that he was showing a characteristics (sic) of an armed person” and would not take his hands out of his pockets. The only thing James was carrying was his health card.

On Dec. 22, 2015, in an encounter that led to his latest lawsuit against Toronto police, James and his younger brother were about to enter the back door of their apartment building, around the supper hour. They allege two officers in a cruiser confronted them and detained them for no reason.

Until that moment, says James, his younger brother had never had an encounter with police.

James states in the suit he did not hand over ID, said nothing and was pulled off the apartment steps and handcuffed by one officer, while the other was “pushing” his brother to the side of the cruiser. Police accused them of “loitering” outside their home, the suit alleges.

In their statement of defence, the two officers and the police service acknowledge the officers “observed two males loitering” behind the building, which they called “a known area” for drinking and drug use. They allege the brothers “appeared to be seeking entry to the building without authorization.”

Police allege James became “hostile and belligerent and made threatening remarks” and that one of the officers believed him to be an “emotionally disturbed person.” That concern led to an “investigative detention” and handcuffs.

According to the police statement of defence, after a computer check revealed the brothers lived at the building, the handcuffs were removed and James tried to punch one of the officers. The officers, according to the statement of defence, disengaged and left.

At that point, police allege James “yelled” at the officers to hit him with their cruiser and “proceeded to kick the driver-side of the scout car.” Throughout, police say “no more force than was reasonably necessary” was used.

James told the Star he has problems with the police version. He says he and his brother had just parked behind the building, his brother had the apartment key in his hand, and they should have been left alone.

As for taking a swing at one officer, James said he demanded badge numbers and stood in the way of the cruiser, blocking it from leaving. One officer got out and began pushing him, he says. At that point, James told the Star, he did take a swing at that officer, in an attempt to defend himself.

James told the Star he has been stopped several times this year and has lost friends over all the police contact.

“No friends want to be around me because they just don’t want to get harassed.”.

Of the many officers to stop and card Dale James, Const. Irwin Correa stands out.

A 2013 Star analysis of Toronto police contact card data obtained in a freedom-of-information request indicates an officer the Star believes to be Correa got credit on 6,600 contact cards from 2008 to 2012. Only one officer had a higher count.

Because he was with the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy unit, created after the gun violence of 2005, Correa and fellow TAVIS officers had many more contacts with citizens than regular patrol officers.

The Star identified the officer it believes to be Correa in carding data using court and other records that mentioned times of contact cards tied to Correa. The Star contacted Correa in 2013. The Toronto Police Association said he would not be commenting.

The Star is identifying him for the first time, in connection with those cards, because of his involvement with James.

Looking at the skin colour of the people stopped for “general investigation” by the officer the Star believes to be Correa , the officer is also a standout for another reason: he stopped many more black people, proportionately, than his peers.

A Star analysis found that the officer the Star believes to be Correa was the highest above his peer average — of all officers — for carding of black people.

James is not suing Correa, who stopped him three times. In material supporting his human rights complaint, James, who is black, said he felt “harassed” by Correa and his then partner.

While the city’s black population is around 8 per cent, 58 per cent of the cards associated with the officer the Star believes to be Correa involved black people.

Data like these offer no proof that an officer is racist — or not. But patterns could be flagged with supervisors. Internal benchmarking is regarded by some police services as a way of flagging behaviour officers may not even be aware of.

The Star found hundreds of Toronto police officers who carded people of different skin colours at disproportionate rates when compared to their peers.

Toronto police have not looked at the data for peer-to-peer officer comparisons of the racial backgrounds of who they stop, as the Star has.

In 2013, Correa, through a police association lawyer, declined Star requests for his thoughts on carding and the patterns for the officer the Star believes to be him. He didn’t confirm or deny that an electronic copy sent to him of 6,600 contact card details were from cards that involved him.

Speaking on Correa’s behalf, police association president McCormack said in 2013 that Correa had recently “received a standard lateral transfer” out of TAVIS.”

Correa was a “respected member of the TAVIS team and seized at least nine firearms and a number of pellet guns, replica guns, ammunition and drugs” while with the unit, which is deployed to areas experiencing violent crime.

One of his contact cards, said McCormack, was instrumental in solving a string of armed robberies.

McCormack said he stands by those comments today. The Star again sought comment from Correa and received no response.

Correa has made headlines before.

In January 2013, a judge found he and two TAVIS partners were involved in an unlawful 2010 stop of a man riding a bicycle in the west end. Ontario Superior Court Justice Brian O’Marra found that Correa pulled down Ohene Darteh’s shorts and underwear.

Darteh testified that his pants were pulled down for about a minute, exposing his genitals in broad daylight, that he was beaten and that a small amount of cocaine was planted in a cruiser that he was placed in, handcuffed, while awaiting an ambulance.

The officers involved, including Correa, denied conducting a public strip search. Correa also denied a suggestion the drugs were not Darteh’s.

In August 2013, the province’s Special Investigations Unit cleared Correa of sexually assaulting Darteh, though the head of the SIU called his actions “deplorable.”

A disciplinary charge over the incident was withdrawn, according to a police document, because Darteh “was not returning” the police prosecutor’s calls and “was no longer interested in proceeding.” Police say Correa is facing a “G20-related matter” at the police tribunal.

Earlier in his career, in the ’80s and ’90s, Correa worked in Parkdale, earning the nickname “Terminator.”

Evidently a reference to the movie, it was a “positive nickname” that people in the neighbourhood used, Correa testified in the Darteh case.

“I had some sunglasses and of course, I was a lot younger. I had a full head of hair. I could see my toes,” Correa told court.

In 2009, he was quoted in a Toronto Sun feature article on TAVIS, as he walked from a highrise on Kipling Ave., in the words of the writer, “looking disgusted.”

A woman was challenging police who wanted the names of two teens — one of whom was her son — “loitering” near the front door.

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